According to Plutarch, a Roman army commanded by Lucullus was about to begin a battle with Mithridates VI of Pontus when "all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar, and in colour, like molten silver." Plutarch reports the shape of the object as like a wine-jar (pithos). The apparently silvery object was reported by both armies.

A bright light over the Temple in Jerusalem. On a later day, "ὤφθη μετέωρα περὶ πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν ἅρματα καὶ φάλαγγες ἔνοπλοι διᾴττουσαι τῶν νεφῶν καὶ κυκλούμεναι τὰς πόλεις" ("there appeared in the air over the whole country chariots and armed troops coursing through the clouds, surrounding the cities").

On a sunny day near the Via Campana, a road connecting Rome and Capua, a single witness, probably Hermas the brother of Pope Pius I, saw "a 'beast' like a piece of pottery (ceramos) about 100 feet in size, multicolored on top and shooting out fiery rays, landed in a dust cloud, accompanied by a "maiden" clad in white. Vision 4.1-3. in The Shepherd of Hermas.

Historian Cassius Dio described "A fine rain resembling silver descended from a clear sky upon the Forum of Augustus." He used some of the material to plate some of his bronze coins, but by the fourth day afterwards the silvery coating was gone.

At sunrise on the 14th April 1561, the citizens of Nuremberg beheld "A very frightful spectacle." The sky appeared to fill with cylindrical objects from which red, black, orange and blue white disks and globes emerged. Crosses and tubes resembling cannon barrels also appeared whereupon the objects promptly "began to fight one another." This event is depicted in a 16th-century woodcut by Hans Glaser.

Belatedly recorded in the Annals over a month late,[6] on September 26, 1609,[7] over "clear and cloudless" skies (three places recorded Sa hour (9-11 AM), one recorded Oh hour (noon), and one recorded Mi hour (1-3 PM)), a shiny object that resembled "a washbasin" appeared over the skies, making "a thunderous sound" and flying "fast like an arrow". Likewise, it was recorded that "heaven and earth shook", and then "it disappeared into sparks".

On February 22 (or March 24) in 1803 local fishermen reportedly saw a vessel drifting in close-by waters. They say when they investigated it, "a beautiful young woman" they described as having red and white hair and dressed in strange clothes appeared. The fisherman claim she held a square box "that no one was allowed to touch" and she spoke to them in a language they never heard before. Modern UFO believers think this story was a credible document of a close encounter of third kind in early Japan. Historians and Ethnologists consider it to be folklore.

On August 12, 1883, the astronomer José Bonilla reported that he saw more than 300 dark, unidentified objects crossing the sun disk while observing sunspot activity at Zacatecas Observatory in Mexico. He was able to take several photographs, exposing wet plates at 1/100 second. It was subsequently determined that the objects were highflying geese.

A letter from the US consulate in Maracaibo Venezuela was printed in the December 18, 1886 issue of Scientific American reporting a meteorological occurrence described as a bright light accompanied by a humming noise that caused occupants of a hut to become ill.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5--10 kilometres (3--6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in Earth's recent history. Impacts of similar size over remote ocean areas would most likely have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s. UFO enthusiasts however, class it as an exploding UFO.

Thousands of people observed the sun gyrate and descend. This was later reinterpreted by Jacques Vallée, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada as a possible UFO sighting, but not recognized as such due to cultural differences.

Harold A. Dahl reported that his dog was killed and his son was injured by debris in an encounter with four to six flying doughnut-shaped objects. He also claimed that a witness was subsequently threatened by the Men in Black.

The radar of a F-61 Black Widow detected a target below the aircraft. While the aircrew tried to intercept it, the pilot saw the object, which appeared as a stubby cigar; then the object accelerated and disappeared.

A series of sightings in July 1952 accompanied radar contacts at three separate airports in the Washington area. The sightings made front page headlines around the nation, and ultimately lead to the formation of the Robertson Panel by the CIA.

Coast Guard photographer Shell Alpert took a photograph of four roughly elliptical blobs of light in formation through the window of his photographic laboratory. A Coast Guard press release described the lights as "objects", however Seaman Alpert subsequently issued a statement saying, "I cannot in all honesty say that I saw objects or aircraft, merely some manner of lights."

After the sighting of a disc-shaped aircraft a group of strange, goblin-like creatures are reported to have repeatedly approached a farm house and looked inside through the windows. Members of the two families present shot at them several times with little or no effect. The encounter lasted from evening to dawn.

A well-known photo series depicting a supposed UFO, was taken on 24 July near Rosetta in the Drakensberg region. The photographer, meteorologist Elizabeth Klarer, claimed detailed adventures with an alien race, besides having had an alien lover, Akon, who would have fathered her son Ayling.

Jack Gettys and James Bittick, who were filming base installations on behalf of test pilot and later astronaut Gordon Cooper, observed the landing and departure of a silent flying disk. Their film evidence was sent to Washington.

US Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres reports that he was ordered to intercept and fire on a UFO displaying "very unusual flight patterns" over East Anglia. Ground radar operators had tracked the object for some time before Torres' plane was scrambled to intercept.

One of the very first abduction claims. Farmer Antonio Vilas Boas claimed to have been abducted and examined by humanoid aliens while working in the fields at night. He also claimed to have had sex with an alien woman aboard the egg-shaped aircraft.

Mysterious deaths of experienced cross-country skiers in the Urals are due to official investigation believed to have been caused by an unknown "compelling natural force". Some claim relation to unidentified orange spheres.

Missionary and many natives saw several UFOs, one of them seeming to be repaired by four human-like occupants; witnesses and aliens waved at each other. The case was investigated by J. A. Hynek and accompanied by other sightings.

The first widely publicized alien abduction experience. The Hills saw a huge flying disk while driving home in their car at late evening and were abducted and medically examined by small extraterrestrials.

Hunter Donald Schrum claimed he saw a flying white light in the forest and was pursued by men as well as "robots". Condon Committee investigators were skeptical of Schrum's story because of its inconsistencies.

Police constables Lockem and de Klerk observed a landed, copper-coloured craft on the Pretoria–Bronkhorstspruit freeway. It was described as being 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and left a 6 feet (1.8 m) wide imprint on the asphalt after a rapid, fiery ascent. The incident was confirmed in a press release by Lt. Colonel J.B. Brits, district commandant for Pretoria North

Mass sighting of a falling brilliant fireball dropping debris and causing sonic booms, followed by a cordoning-off of the probable crash site, alleged intimidation of a reporter by men in black and cover-up and the unresolved death of said witness.

A large lit object was reported to have crashed into waters near Shag Harbour. A Canadian naval search followed, and officially referred to the object as a UFO. Some military persons involved claim the unknown object to be an alien spacecraft. There were other UFO sightings in the area at the time.

An unidentified object was tracked by a Duke Field radar unit during the same time period, and within the same area, that 10 to 15 people observed four strange objects flying in formation between Milton, Florida, and Crestview, Florida, along Interstate 10, according to Eglin officials. Reports from the base indicated that a bright glowing ball of light could be seen travelling parallel with an Air Force C-130 aircraft but at a much higher altitude.

Travellers Peter and Frances MacNorman claimed an abduction event on 31 May, which would have started near Fort Victoria in the current southern Zimbabwe, and which would have continued to the vicinity of Beitbridge on the South African border.

An alleged mid-air collision between a UFO and a small airplane, near the town of Coyame, Chihuahua, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. Some people believe that a UFO crashed and was secretly recovered, but according to local residents, UFO rumors arose after Mexican military authorities conducted a search to recover drugs and money scattered across the landscape in the wreckage of a plane piloted by a U.S. resident in 1980.

USAF security personnel reported an unidentified craft flying within exceptionally-secure Strategic Air Command airspace over a B-52 base housing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. An incoming KC-135 tanker was later ordered to commence pursuit over Lake Huron. The object or objects, last seen back over the base's weapons storage area, were never identified.

Logger Travis Walton reports being abducted by aliens for five days. Walton's six workmates claimed to have witnessed a bright hovering large silvery disk and fled the scene leaving him lying on the ground. He reappeared on 11-10 at late evening in Heber-Overgaard. Walton described the event and its aftermath in the book The Walton Experience, which was dramatized in the film Fire in the Sky (with the scenes aboard the extraterrestrials' vessel significantly changed).

A farmer in Emilcin is said to have been abducted and medically examined by short, green-faced, humanoid entities speaking an unearthly language in a white, hovering, humming craft. There is now a memorial at the site.

A mother and her 12-year old son of Mindalore, Krugersdorp, both claimed an encounter with a group of human-like entities standing beside a craft. One of them encouraged her to depart with them permanently. After she refused, they entered the craft which then shot upwards and disappeared in 30 seconds.

A forester, Bob Taylor, was pulled by two spiked globes towards a large spheroid object, which hovered on a clearing. He lost consciousness and afterwards had trouble walking and speaking. He was also constantly thirsty for several days.

A huge diamond-shaped object expelling flame and emitting heat irradiated three witnesses on an isolated road in dense woods, who all required treatment for radiation poisoning. The UFO was escorted by military helicopters including CH-47 Chinooks. The victims have since sued the US Government.

First two square-shaped, then one very large craft witnessed by the crew flew alongside Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 for 50 minutes above Alaska. One of the objects trailing the Boeing 747 was detected by military radar.

A hovering triangular craft with red central light, and white star-like lights on each extremity, was observed by a family at Baviaanspoort, Pretoria. A similar craft was sighted in the nearby Eersterust township on the evenings of 8 and 9 April, either stationary or moving.

Residents of Sasolburg observed a craft arriving from the direction of Vereeniging. The craft departed in a flash in the direction of Parys, but returned some three minutes later. The craft, similar in appearance to a water droplet, was observed to change colour and shape. With time individual lights were distinguished, and the body was determined to be cigar-shaped. While contained in a yellowish to orange glow, it emitted a downward blue light, before once again departing in a flash, upwards. A nearby town resident claimed to have found imprints of a small craft's landing gear some two months later.

A farmer claimed to have made repeated observations of a noisy, nighttime craft travelling at great speeds, besides what he described as a 'mother ship'. The craft's noise was compared to the sound of a helicopter or Volkswagen Beetle engine. The farmer's general claims were supported by four independent observers.

A glowing disc was sighted by Sergeant Becker near the Adriaan Vlok police station, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria. The pulsating light contained a red triangle and emitted bright green tentacles, while a radar operator at Johannesburg International confirmed its presence. A chase ensued involving some 200 policemen and a police helicopter. The helicopter chase was given up at 10,000 ft near Bronkhorstspruit, when the object made a vertical ascent.

A video taken during mission STS-80 of the Space Shuttle Columbia was analyzed by Mark J. Carlotto. It included three unusual phenomena: two slow-moving circular objects; a strange rapidly moving burst of light near the Earth's surface; and a number of object traces near the shuttle. The first two may be shuttle debris and an unusual atmospheric phenomenon. An analysis of the object traces near the shuttle suggested they were not shuttle debris or meteors, though James Oberg deemed them to be nearby sunlit debris.

Lights and craft of varying descriptions, most notably a V-shaped pattern, were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson.

A hovering, cylindrical light or shiny cloud, was filmed by Andreas Mathios in the sky above the town of Trichardt, in the current western Mpumalanga province. Besides Mathios, it was independently observed by three other persons around 6:50am. The light suddenly dropped and rose again before disappearing.

The Laubscher family videotaped a group of roundish triangular craft passing over the town of Graaff-Reinet, at about 25,000 ft. These were changing colour and sometimes circled one another, before being overtaken by a much larger, shiny, gold-coloured craft. At this point all the objects departed to a cloud bank on the horizon.

Police inspector Kriel claimed to have observed an approaching UFO while travelling on the N3 freeway, 70 km north of Warden in the eastern Free State province. The orange, oval-shaped light was fitted with two cupolas, one above and another below, and was wide enough to cover four lanes of the freeway. After a close approach the craft receded again. A follow up report claimed that the vicinity is known for moving light apparitions.

A drug-smuggling air-patrol recorded on infrared camera what some claimed to be UFOs. The footage was released by Jaime Maussan. The objects were however convincingly correlated with the burn-off flares of oil platforms.

A sequence of five mass UFO sightings, first on August 21, 2004, two months later on October 31, 2004, again on October 1 of 2005, and once again on October 31, 2006, in Tinley Park and Oak Park, Chicago.

A fast moving object was spotted at 30° in the eastern horizon between 3:30AM and 6:30AM and filmed on handycam. Its shape shifted from a sphere to a triangle and then to a straight line. The object emitted a bright light forming a halo and radiated a range of colours. It was spotted by many people and hundreds gathered along the E.M. Bypass to catch a glimpse of the UFO, triggering a frenzy. The video footage was released on a TV News channel and later shown to Dr. D.P. Duari, the director of MP Birla Planetarium, Kolkata, who found it to be "extremely interesting and strange".

The Dudley Dorito sightings concerns multiple sightings of a black triangle over the West Midlands conurbation of the United Kingdom which began in November 2007. The phrase was coined by the local press after hearing witness descriptions of the object.

UFOs were, and are sometimes still reported from this area. One was an object described as 1 mile (1.6 km) by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in size, spotted over Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas. The Air Force has identified the objects as training fighter jets that went unreported due to a "communications problem".

Over a four-month span in 2008, a night guard at the Yeni Kent Compound videotaped one or more UFOs over Turkey at nighttime. Many witnesses confirmed the two and a half hours' worth of video, leading the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center to dub it the "most important images of a UFO ever filmed".

According to media reports, a police helicopter was almost hit by a UFO, before it tried to pursue it. Hundreds of people reported to have witnessed a UFO on the same or preceding days, from different areas of Wales.

Two formations of high-flying, orange-red objects, were seen by many witnesses, and video-recorded by some, as they traveled between the towns of Middelburg and Witbank, 25 kilometres (16 mi) apart. The first formation of 7 objects were seen at 21:51 on 27 February, as they flew westwards from Middelburg towards Witbank. Due to their altitude they eventually disappeared behind clouds. At 20:00 on 6 March, they were noted again high in the sky, but this time greater in number, 23, and traveling in the opposite direction.

A large, circular spinning white light, trailed by a long blue tail over the skies of Norway was spotted by thousands for two minutes around 8:45 am on December 9. The Norwegian media and space center were swamped with calls, and the phenomenon was held to be anything from a UFO to a unique aurora borealis event. The following day Russian authorities confirmed a failed Bulava launch, explaining the anomaly.

Residents of Booysens, Pretoria, observed a triangle of bright lights which hung motionless in the sky for two hours. In each instance the object commenced a slow descent towards the horizon at 20:30. Binocular observation revealed nothing more than a blue and emerald light, with a white light which shone straight downwards.

Reports included purple and red flashing lights appearing on the evening of February 20, 2011, as well as a flying saucer shape with green and red lights reportedly appearing just before 7:00 pm to Vancouver residents on the evening of February 21, 2011. Witness descriptions of the object included hovering for several minutes with occasional darting, side-to-side motions. No noise was reported to accompany the sightings.

A host of silent, orange lights with consistent luminosity were observed as they traveled faster than a commercial aeroplane over Tierpoort near Pretoria (some 20 objects) and Krugersdorp respectively. On 15 June seven of these objects were observed and some photographed as they crossed the sky in single file over Tierpoort.

Many people in Houston, Texas saw a ring of lights, flying during a thunderstorm and this was captured on video, object seemed to be transparent but the lights were arranged in a circle with a central light visible on some pictures.

The police in Breckenridge, Colorado received not only one but multiple reports of UFO sightings over the city. The mysterious objects remained stationary for periods of up to 15 minutes at a time. After that, a flash would appear and the “objects would take off across the mountain ridge”.

Plane passenger records speeding circular 'UFO' zooming beneath the jet he was in as it flies over Iran. Shaped like a disc, the fast-moving object does not resemble another plane, nor could it be mistaken for a helicopter.